Business Case Development for Inter-Organizational ES Implementations

This paper describes my PhD research on the development of business case guidelines that can be used for complex information system implementations, such as inter-organizational enterprise systems (ES). I identify problems and solutions related to the issue of estimating the costs and benefits of such complex implementations. Next to describing the research method used in my PhD project, I discuss what my research adds to the body of research and why this work is of interest for both the research community and practitioners

Costs, Benefits and Value Distribution – Ingredients for Successful Cross-Organizational ES Business Cases

This paper introduces my PhD research project on developing guidelines for creating successful business cases for Enterprise System implementations in network settings. Three important aspects that were found to be important in such business cases are: the costs, benefits and the value distribution within a network. Each of the three aspects is addressed in this paper and the relationships between them are pointed out. A research model is presented showing how all three aspects contribute to the main goal of defining successful business case guidelines

A Negotiation Game to Support Inter-organizational Business Case Development

Nowadays, an increasing number of organizations in the supply chain are involved in business collaborations. The success of such collaborations is, among others, highly dependent on joint investment in IT system implementations. In this paper we will discuss how business cases can be used to determine the costs and benefits of such investments for each actor. Using design science as a research paradigm we develop a serious game, called SID4IOP, that helps partners in inter-organizational settings to come to an equal distribution of the costs and benefits of an investment. We will show how the introduction of anonymity, a bidding mechanism and structured information disclosure can help project partners to reach agreement on the distribution of the costs. © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

Feasibility of EPC to BPEL Model Transformations Based on Ontology and Patterns

Model-Driven Engineering holds the promise of transforming\ud business models into code automatically. This requires the concept of\ud model transformation. In this paper, we assess the feasibility of model\ud transformations from Event-driven Process Chain models to Business\ud Process Execution Language specifications. To this purpose, we use a\ud framework based on ontological analysis and workflow patterns in order\ud to predict the possibilities/limitations of such a model transformation.\ud The framework is validated by evaluating the transformation of several\ud models, including a real-life case.\ud The framework indicates several limitations for transformation. Eleven\ud guidelines and an approach to apply them provide methodological support\ud to improve the feasibility of model transformation from EPC to\ud BPEL

Managing the business case development in inter-organizational IT projects: a methodology and its application

The business case (BC) is an artifact that is used to justify an investment in terms of its expected costs, benefits and risks. In the field of IT it is commonly used to justify an investment into an IT project in order to get the investment approval from upper management. Decision makers also may use the business case to compare different projects within a portfolio and decide into which they want to invest money. While the general role of business cases in single organizations is rather clear and subject to most BC research, its role and importance in an inter-organizational setting are less articulated and researched. \ud The fact that the role of the BC is rather clear in single organizations, however, does not mean that everything goes as planned and the expected benefits are achieved in time and within budget. Uncertainties related to both the cost and the benefit estimations included in the BC, may interfere greatly with the realization of the BC itself. While the estimation of the costs is a well-understood problem in a mature research domain, the specification of the benefits is often more challenging and less well understood and researched. \ud In this thesis we provide a better understanding of the problem of BC development in general, and in inter-organizational settings in particular. \ud Following design science as main research paradigm we develop our business case for inter-organizational projects (BC4IOP) methodology specifically for this problem domain. The methodology consists of the following three independent but complementary components: \ud - BM4IOP: a comprehensive benefits management method;\ud - VM4IOP: a method that explores how a network creates value and what the impact is on business case development;\ud - SID4IOP: a method that supports stakeholders to achieve agreement on the cost distribution of a shared project, by structurally disclosing more information. \ud We conclude that it is the combination of: the identification and specification of costs and benefits for an individual BC and the decision about the cost and benefit distribution in a shared BC, that make BC4IOP a strong and unique methodology

ES Implementations in Cross-organizational Settings: How Should the Business Case Look Like?

This paper describes my PhD research on the development of\ud realistic and innovative business case guidelines that can be used for complex information system implementations, such as cross-organizational ES implementations. I identify problems and solutions related to the issue of assessing the benefits of such complex implementations. Based on a structured literature review, a multidimensional benefit framework was developed. This is used as input into the ES business case guideline development process

Open Data Innovation Capabilities: Towards a Framework of How to Innovate with Open Data

Part 2: Open GovernmentInternational audienceInnovation based on open data lags behind the high expectations of policy makers. Hence, open data researchers have investigated the barriers of open data publication and adoption. This paper contributes to this literature by taking a capabilities perspective on how successful open data re-users create value out of the available data sources. First, a framework of IT, organization and skills capabilities required to innovate with data is derived from literature. Second, a case study including a survey and interview with managers from 12 frontrunners in the Netherlands was conducted. The analysis reveals that skills are valued the highest closely followed by organizational capabilities. Setting up a multi-disciplinary team with motivated employees and giving this team the mandate to experiment with data, is essential when innovating with open data. Theoretically, this study contributes to open data research by offering a new capabilities perspective on the organizational level. Our results highlight the importance of entrepreneurship theories to explain value creation with open data. Practically, our study suggests that digital skills and start-ups are important to the open government data policies